soon as december. and herschel walker now says he s not backing down despite the abortion scandal rocking his campaign. ma maggie haberman joins me this hour on donald trump s decision to back walker despite his checkered past. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. let s begin our coverage in ukraine where a furious counteroffensive is now sweeping russian troops out of territory. moscow has held for months. cnn is your national security editor. nick paton walsh is joining us live from the war zone. nick, this rapid ukrainian advance comes as vladimir putin laid claim to that troubled nuclear power plant. what s the latest on the ground tonight? ukraine s president zelenskyy clear that half a thousand square kilometers of territory in the kherson region have since the beginning of the month been liberated from russian control. that s a larger number of than officials said earlier today and it s part of the slow drip we saw ourselves just yesterday of territory r
and joining us now, cnn political analyst, maggie haberman. the senior political reporter for the new york times. her new book is entitled confidence man, the making of donald trump and the breaking of america. it s truly well reported. an excellent, excellent book. i highly recommend it. as you know, the former president is doubling down now on his support for walker. can walker survive this? he can, wolf. it s going to depend on you know, how significant an issue this is particularly for evangelical voters in georgia, but i think walker is going to be yet another test in this post donald trump republican party of what voters are willing to tolerate. we saw they were willing to tolerate a number of controversies with trump. this one is somewhat different. you know, but walker has been showing staying power in this race. you know, despite allegations related to domestic violence over the course of the past year. more than that.
soon as december. and herschel walker now says he s not backing down despite the abortion scandal rocking his campaign. ma maggie haberman joins me this hour on donald trump s decision to back walker despite his checkered past. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. let s begin our coverage in ukraine where a furious counteroffensive is now sweeping russian troops out of territory. moscow has held for months. cnn is your national security editor. nick paton walsh is joining us live from the war zone. nick, this rapid ukrainian advance comes as vladimir putin laid claim to that troubled nuclear power plant. what s the latest on the ground tonight? ukraine s president zelenskyy
because i think it s different when someone has been a president and they are back to doing the same thing they had done before they had power. you know, he s doing these rallies again. i don t think that feels great to him and it s not hugely surprising to me that he feels that way. he may get more into it if he declares a campaign. he tends to enjoy a fight once he s in it as opposed to the lead up to it. but you know, i just think that his heart is not in it the way it once was and this is something a number of of aides have observed as well. we ll see where it goes. thanks so much for joining us and writing this poimportant bo. there s the cover. i highly recommend it. it s going to be a huge best seller. thanks, maggie, very much. thanks, wolf. just ahead, president biden takes his first major steps towards decriminalizing marijuana nationwide.
today. why is that? because the world is changing. what do you make of that response, maggie? i think that donald trump is aware of his own role in the world changing as he put it, which is he sees it as he survived all kinds of scandals. other people can, too. donald trump is a unique figure. he had been part of pop culture in the country for decades before he became a candidate and voters felt bonded to him in ways that isn t necessarily true with everyone. i think that walker as a former sports star starts with base of support that others do not, but trump likes to think other people can survive scandal because i ve shown them how to do it. we re talking about allegations of domestic violence in his past and trump is essentially saying it doesn t matter anymore. we ll find out if that s true. we will. as you know, trump is now himself in what s being called survival mode as he faces multiple investigations including his handle of